


don’t need to runaway

by beachbummer



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, DCU, DCU (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Haly's Circus, also the tag refers to john II not dick’s dad, also tim and jason only come at the end for a littl bit, and i refer to dick’s dad as giovanni or gio bc i like it better, dick’s aunt and uncle are also here so yay !!, sue me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-19 02:22:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,359
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20202163
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beachbummer/pseuds/beachbummer
Summary: the circus wasn’t so keen on letting one of their own leave.[Or Dick’s aunt, uncle, and cousin survive]





	don’t need to runaway

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact i thot i lost this story for good but i got it back so its here !!

‘The Flying Graysons, what a show stopping number they are. Their twinkling outfits of brilliant reds and greens, with dazzling gold. They leave audiences with mouths agape and eyes wide. Oh, the world renowned acrobats, the Flying Graysons!’

and it all came crashing down, down down down. 

Johnny Grayson was left to stand in horror with his parents on the platform, looking down on the lower ledge to see his little cousin, his little brother. Dickie Grayson was a menace most days, with his eyes always marked with mischief. The look of pain and anxiety and terror was something he never wanted to see on anyone in his family, much less the baby of it.

Johnny refused to look where Dickie was looking. He heard it, he saw it. He knows what lies there and he knows that’s the cause of his little cousins pain.

He doesn’t think he’ll ever forget the way the lights twinkled like stars, too bright and too flashy. The sound of his aunt and uncle’s screams. Too loud. 

“Come here, Johnny boy” his mom grabs him and hides his face in her neck and he doesn’t even think to push her away. He hugs her back just as tight and inhales her apple blossom shampoo and tries to not forget his aunt’s cherry perfume or his uncle’s woody aftershave.

He pretends he doesn’t feel the tears slipping into his hair, just as his mom pretends she doesn’t feel Johnny’s gasping sobs against her collar bone. 

Johnny wonders where his dad is, wishing he could feel his strong arms around the both of them. He hears louder sobs coming from just down below, and it answers his question.

“Dickie, c’mon son, look away”

He doesn’t see it but he knows his dad is trying to pry Dickie away, hide him as if he hadn’t witnessed it all, witnessed too much. 

“Mama! Papa! They’re not moving! Why aren’t they moving uncle Richie?!”

Johnny sobs harder. 

———

It takes a bit of work but the family slowly make it down to the harsh earth. Johnny turns and sees his dad carrying Dickie tightly, holding his face firmly into his shoulder. He focuses on his dad’s grip instead of the flashes of red and blue. Focuses on his mom’s long fingers, the simple ring.

They all pointedly don’t look towards the splatter. The snap rings loud. The screams ring louder. And the grief and regret is almost suffocating. 

It becomes almost a tangible thing, and the recent silence does nothing to help. No one bothers to break it, the family of four instead walk to the officers who are beckoning them forward. 

They don’t look happy, they look annoyed. And if Johnny were in the right state of mind he’d fight the urge to punch the pasty bulky one square in the nose. But instead, he grips his mom tighter and tries not to let the twinkle of the stars burn too much.

It seems like a journey, a long winding one that’ll never end, making it to the officers. Karla and Richie Grayson know they’ll be questioned, know that they’ll glance at the brown skin and brown eyes. Where the family sees molasses and honey and warmth, all the officers [and everyone else] sees is dirt. Dirty things. Unpolished dolls who are subpar, made only for entertainment. And if Richie were in the right state of mind too, and not currently holding his baby nephew, he would most certainly punch the pasty bulky one square in the nose.

But they are stopped before they ever make it to the pasty and cold.

“Mr and Mrs. Grayson? Hi, I’m Bruce Wayne.”

And if Karla were in the right state of mind she wouldn’t hesitate to punch him square in the nose.

———

Johnny has no idea who this Bruce Wayne type is, all he sees is pale pale pale skin. Blueish grey eyes. But at least they are not cold. 

His mom and dad obviously know who he is if the tighter grip on both he and Dickie is anything to go by.

“Listen, if you can’t read the room, pal, we don’t want to talk anybody right now but we kinda have to at least speak to the officers, so we’d greatly appreciate it if you were to just fucking leave us alone.”

Dad was kinda scary but the effect was kinda also ruined by the soft way he rubbed Dickie’s head.

And this was evident in the fact that this Bruce Wayne type decided to keep talking.

“And I’m truly deeply sorry, but I need you to listen-“

“Pal, seriously back off”

“Those cops are corrupt”

Mom made a very funny little noise and said “yeah no shit” which Johnny also found funny.

“Okay, point, but these cops are just plain racist. One’s been accused with evidence about sexual assault, and I’m pretty sure they’ve been seen at white supremacist meetings. They’re gonna try to take him away from you, just because they can.” He pointed at Dickie, and Johnny wanted to bite his finger off.

Didn’t he know they already knew this? Didn’t he know they’re willing to fight tooth and nail with the GCPD, just like they would with every other police department. Because nothing would’ve changed had this happened anywhere else. Didn’t he know?

The eyes weren’t cold but they were still sunken into pale pale pale. 

“And listen, okay, I’ve got enough influence that they won’t even think twice about doing that. As long as you pretend we’re old friends to the cops, all you’d end up doing is telling them what happened, and they’ll leave you alone. Promise”

Pale promises. The ones that mattered the least.

But the sirens are still ringing and maybe the officers eyes don’t seem as annoyed now that Bruce Wayne is here. 

“Fine, fine okay. But we don’t owe you anything”

“I don’t expect anything”

———

The Graysons recount what they know, which wasn’t much. The officers nod along and Bruce pretends that he doesn’t see the way the look them up and down and glance at him.

And it seems to be going fine, like they’ll get off with minimal questioning, and the officers say “Well, this seems like such a tragic accident, and we’re sorry for what transpired. We offer our condolences.” And the condolences tasted bitter but they were willing to ignore the falseness of which they said it. It seemed to be going fine. 

Until Dickie said, “It wasn’t an accident.”

His eyes were glassy, like a dolls. With his petite frame and still baby soft hair, he looked like the antique ones the strongman collected. Like he could break at any misstep. 

And had Johnny not lived with him he would’ve believed it so, would’ve believed he could break porcelain. 

But he knew better. He knew Dickie was a manipulative bastard and would get at least someone to believe him. 

“Oh?” Pale skin and eyes that weren’t cold seemed intrigued. Bulls eye. 

“What do you mean, Dickie?”

His eyes were still hazy, unseeing and all seeing. 

“Pop was talking to someone. Someone bad. He wanted money.” 

“Do you remember what he looked like?” Oh Dickie got Bruce Wayne, locked and loaded and ready to do his bidding. Johnny might be a bit proud. [or very]

“Big. And smelly. With black hair, I think, and a repeating hairline.”

“Repeating?”

“He means receding” Johnny croaked, his throat hurting and maybe his heart did too.

“That isn’t much to go by, kid, especially from a witness that young.” Maybe Johnny was regaining his senses if he were to go by the sudden urge to sucker punch something or someone. 

“Said he was part of the Italian may-fa.”

“The mafia?”

“Duh. Said he was Zucco.” 

Dickie sure knew how to knock the wind out of people, didn’t he. Couldn’t have possibly started with that, where was the drama in that? 

“Zucco?”

Before, Dickie’s stilted and accented words made it seem to the officers like he was just some dumb carnie kid, spewing nonsense. After that little confession, Johnny knew the officers were second guessing what they thought of the glassy molasses eyes and honey brown skin. 

He also knew that Bruce Wayne’s eyes that weren’t cold had gained a steely glint. 

And Dickie knew, with all his 8 year old knowledge, that something was brewing. Bulls eye. 

———

A pale bat flew later that night. It’s eyes were unable to be seen. 

———

Life did not resume as it did before. They were luckily able to keep Dickie, after a bit of private questioning, which didn’t last long.

Karla knew it wouldn’t have been that easy had Wayne not stepped in. But she didn’t owe him jack shit, and she would’ve fought any pig who tried to take her nephew, her sister and brother’s boy, away from her. The four practically co-parented him and Johnny. He was as good as hers. 

He was hers. And Gotham wasn’t going to take anyone else that was hers. 

She kept her boys close and looked for the brightest stars in the sky, the ones burning her eyes. She hoped, but she did not pray, that Mary and Gio were twinkling and flying, just as they were meant to.

She hopes that they will forgive her for being able to see their boy grow while they couldn’t. 

She makes a sweet tea, to soothe the aches and cracks in her boys. All 3 of them. Johnny chugs it all without realizing, on autopilot. She sees Richie take sips, but he hardly finishes it. 

Dickie’s remains cold on the table as he sits in front of it. 

And Karla’s heart breaks. 

———

They decided to cremate Mary and Gio. They travel along with them. 

The day also comes to clear out their trailer. At first, Richie worried that his nephew would easily break down when sorting through it all. 

But Dickie’s eyes aren’t as glassy, and while they may still be unseeing and all seeing, he charges through.

To Richie and Karla, it feels too intrusive but they couldn’t let Dickie do it on his own. The circus offers little privacy and everyones trailer was the only possible way to have any. To sort through the most private aspects of Mary and Gio, it was almost too much.

But they have to charge through, too. 

So they sat in the little living area that was also connected to the kitchen in a very open plan. While Karla had her walls painted pale blue, Gio had painted their trailer walls a soft yellow. They had blankets just about everywhere, because Dickie liked being warm. There were little potted plants and flowers just about everywhere. 

Richie tried not to feel the eyes of all the pictures. Dickie couldn’t take his eyes off them. 

Johnny helped Dickie pull them all down from the walls, and put all the little polaroids into a painted wooden box on the counter that held spare change. Johnny pretended to not see his cousin pocket the one of Mary and Gio holding a new born Dickie.

———

After the trailer is cleared of the important stuff, the family take it with them and split off from the circus.

——— 

Karla can’t bring herself to stay in Gotham. Neither can anybody else. 

They settle in Rhode Island, a small pistachio green house, not too far off from the ocean view.

They won’t settle their whole lives, they’re just taking a year off. But they’ll come back.

Maybe one day, it’ll be home enough to stay for good.

———

The pistachio green house on Winkle Ave. had a green, if overcrowded, yard. With flowers and veggies and fruit trees just about everywhere, they were tended to by the whole family. 

The locals thought they were nice enough, if a bit strange. 

In the year they took to live in the house, Karla continued to homeschool the boys. It was difficult trying to figure out a way to teach Dickie who was still a couple years behind Johnny, but they figured it out.

They always did. 

They celebrate birthdays with berry pancakes and fruit smoothies, and choose a place to visit for the day. 

Summer nights are spent basking in the sun’s last rays, eating cut up peaches and pears. 

When spring sees cool breezes with sunshine, they practice routines and chug cold cold water. 

Fall evenings have the family of four wrapped in scarfs and beanies crunching leaves and picking pumpkins to make stew. 

And winter has the boys sipping hot chocolate and giggling as they stick their stupidly cold feet into Karla and Richie’s legs.

[and all seasons witness Dickie wrapping himself in every blanket in the house, no matter how hot the day is. The seasons witness him sob and sob and break. The other members always hold him, they don’t let him slip through their fingers like they let Mary and Gio slip.]

———

They come to discover that Dickie has kept up with Gotham news. Well, as best as an 8 year old can. 

And they can’t deny that Dickie experiences less of those breakdowns when news gets out that Tony Zucco has been imprisoned for the murder of famous acrobatic performers, Mary and Giovanni Grayson. 

And Karla and Richie can’t deny that feeling that it wasn’t the cops that brought justice.

——

They go back to the circus. They only needed a bit of time off, some time to mourn. But they’re Graysons, and they can’t stay in one place for too long. They need to move. 

They find that Haly has been receiving donations from an anonymous source. The donations allow the circus to expand, and allows for new members to join.

Dickie and Johnny find the new twin seers fascinating and the twins find them equally as interesting.

The twins, Cecelia and Firaas, seem to seek them out and always seem to look for someone.

“No one batty has been following you?”

“Only you”

They don’t see the seers glance at the night sky when they end up in the east coast for a show.

———

Dickie and Johnny grow up. They grow up but not apart. They are the respectable age of 13 and 19.

Dickie starts going by Dick, to shorten and give every middle-aged women an aneurism. [and also because the elderly ladies don’t mind it as much and reprimand the women who find it vulgar. that cheeky bastard]

Johnny goes by John and begins to grow into a respectable young man, which makes Dick wanna barf. John also outgrows that lanky phase that was never really awkward for all his acrobatic grace. But he begins to grow taller, and his hands are calloused and big and warm. [and maybe Dick still holds it, still finds comfort in it 5 years later, when walking through rich neighborhoods]

John, for all his acrobatic grace, decided to go to college. He takes online classes because for all their healing, they suspect Dick still has a mild case of separation anxiety. 

It’s gotten better, John likes to think. But it’s still there, still a nagging feeling in Dick’s mind when he wakes up later than everybody else and finds no one in their rooms. It’s seen in the way Dick is 13 and still seeks out a hand to hold, to cling. It’s gotten better. [but from rock bottom, it’s only up]

Dick is doing great in school, despite what he wants you to believe. And John knows his little brother is a bigger geek than him, with all his advanced math and science classes. Karla is having trouble keeping up, and enlisted the help of certain tutors. 

And maybe John isn’t keep the Flying Grayson legacy going but it’s alive in them. It’s alive in his mom’s curly dirty blonde hair and shining sharp smile. It’s alive in his dad’s strong arms and his smooth voice . It’s alive in Dick’s unseeing and all seeing eyes.

[it was alive in his aunt’s black short hair and glossy smile. it was alive in his uncle’s mustache that would twitch when he smiled and his long smart fingers. it was alive in Dickie’s innocence]

———

They don’t return to Gotham until Dick is 14 and John is 20. 

While the donations did keep them afloat, they could only do so much, and loathe as Pop is to say it, Gotham City always has a great turn out at the shows.

When they do return, it is to an outsold show. Lights are twinkling.

The outfits are changed from red and green and gold to electric blue with gold.

It’s John’s last show before he fully integrates himself into his career as an english teacher in Rhode Island. 

There are security guards just about everywhere. And Bruce Wayne is in the audience with his recently adopted wards, Jason Todd and Tim Drake.

A show stopping number is put on. 

———

Jason thought it was weird Bruce wanted to see some circus show so badly. In the short time he’d known him, he didn’t take him for a circus guy.

Jason came to live with Bruce when Batman found him kicking around with Tim, who had been sneaking out of his house recently. Jason found Tim on one of these outings and told him that if he ever wanted to survive the streets he needed to stay close.

When Batman found them and took them both to the cave and then to Bruce Wayne’s manor, they may have promptly lost their shit.

But Bruce took them in once he realized Jason’s recent orphan status and Tim’s neglectful parents. 

And now, in present day, lo and behold, Bruce wanted to do a little family outing, keep the tabloids satisfied. 

Except he actually seemed to want to see this show. And apparently Tim’s seen the acrobats before and kept singing their praises, so Jason went along on the agreement that he was allowed a large lemonade and cotton candy.

Through a mouthful of blue sugar, he witnessed a show stopping number.

———

John and Dick did photos with audience members after the show, with Karla and Richie joining later.

All was well, when Bruce Wayne came up with two boys in tow.

Dick immediately started grinning, which made John think that his brother’s bastard tendencies were about to shine through. 

“Bruce Wayne! I’ve got a bone to pick with you, mister ‘close friends of the Graysons’. If a white rich man makes claims like that I expect him to keep them, or else I’ll start to believe rich white men aren’t trustworthy. No phone calls, no visits, sheesh, pretty soon I’ll start thinking your ignoring us!”

The two little boys were positively beaming at Bruce’s sheepish expression.

“Dickie, you brat, just take the pictures like any normal person”

“Johnny you wound me, college changed you, man. Mister high and mighty has a scholarship and now won’t entertain his little brother’s bastard tendencies”

“Boys enough of that, and Dick stop swearing in front of children” Richie tried and failed to hide his absolute pleasure in their antics.

“But I’m children”

“When you want to be”

“We’re here for photos so pipe down, look cute, and smile or else, boys”

“Yes ma’am” 

———

After the show, The Flying Graysons retire for good.

Dick continues school in Rhode Island while John heads to college. 

Karla and Richie [and Mary and Gio] have never been prouder of their boys.

———

The circus members keep correspondence with the family, especially the seers.

They write the boys often.

“Seen anyone batty following you?”

“Again, only the two of you.”

“Hmm. Soon.”

————

While Karla and Richie are making pasta for dinner, John and Dick were watching Scooby Doo reruns as a lazy weekday activity.

The post arrives, and with it came the bills, a letter and two postcards.

The letter is from two boys by the name of Jason Todd and Tim Drake. Dick positively cackles at the short explanation from Bruce at the bottom of the letter.

‘I intend to keep my claims true’

And John picks up the postcards, one of a robin and one of night sky.

‘Seen anyone batty?’

**Author's Note:**

> A lot of the info about dick’s aunt and uncle are headcanons of my own accord, and its not explicitly stated but dick’s family [his dad and uncle] is romani i just alluded to it because i know there isnt many credible sources about the culture and i didnt wanna botch it. Ty for reading btw !!!


End file.
